Former centre-back Rio Ferdinand has rubbished suggestions that Manchester United perform better when Cristiano Ronaldo is not playing.
The Portuguese star hit back at his recent critics in the best possible manner by scoring a hat-trick to help United seal a huge 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening. After seeing his first two goals cancelled out by Spurs equalisers, the second of which came via a Harry Maguire own goal, Ronaldo headed home Alex Telles' corner nine minutes from time to seal his hat-trick and wrap up all three points.
Considering he had been heavily criticised for travelling to Portugal as United lost 4-1 to arch-rivals Manchester City last weekend, it was the perfect response from the five-time Ballon d'Or winner. Although the goals have not been flowing as regularly as he would have liked in recent weeks, he is United's leading marksman this term with 18 goals to his name in all competitions.
Breaking the statistics down, without his goals, United would have failed to have won four Premier League matches this term, highlighting his importance. Furthermore, he also single-handedly dragged United out of their Champions League group.
And for Ferdinand, it is Ronaldo's heroics in the Champions League this season that have highlighted how important he is to what United are trying to achieve. He scored six times in five group games and inspired the wins over Villarreal and Atalanta.
"Without Cristiano Ronaldo, Man United would not still be in the Champions League," Ferdinand told Mirror Football. "Are United a stronger team without him? I cannot agree with that at all.
"If he is not playing with Man United then they would have gone out in the group stage. A player with his ability and his talent, who is as decisive as he is, who has shown it over the years and this season that he can make the difference.
"Man United are not a team who are in the position to think, ‘ok, we are too good to have someone like that in our team'."
Ronaldo has now scored 12 goals in the Premier League this season, meaning only Liverpool ace Mohamed Salah has scored more with 20. Fellow Liverpool duo Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane are currently tied with Ronaldo on 12.
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